Harun al-Rashid’s elephant Abul-Abbas reaches Aachen, 802

Harun al-Rashid’s elephant Abul-Abbas reaches Aachen

On 20 July 802 Isaac, a Jew whom Charlemagne had sent to the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid five years earlier, handed over to the emperor at Aachen the caliph’s gifts, among them an elephant named Abul-Abbas. The exchange of embassies between the two rulers is known almost entirely from Frankish sources; Arabic sources do not mention it.

Date

20 July 802exact dateDate in the Julian calendar

Place

Aachen (Aquisgranum)today: Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany · Western and Central Europe

Route

Porto Venere → Vercelli → Aachen (Aquisgranum)

Participants

Charlemagne, Harun al-Rashid, Carolingian Empire, Abbasid Caliphate, Aghlabids

Threads

Early medieval Europe (500–1000)

Also known as

Abul-Abbas; Abul Abaz; Абу-ль-Аббас; Charlemagne’s elephant; Слон Карла Великого; Isaac the Jew; Исаак (посол Карла Великого)

In 797 Charlemagne sent three envoys — Lantfrid, Sigimund and the Jew Isaac — to Harun al-Rashid, whom the Royal Frankish Annals call “king of the Persians”. In 801, on his way back from Rome, the emperor learned that envoys of the caliph and of Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, emir of Ifriqiya, had landed at Pisa. He received them between Vercelli and Ivrea and heard that Lantfrid and Sigimund had died, while Isaac was returning with great gifts; the notary Ercanbald was sent to Liguria to prepare ships for the elephant. In October 801 Isaac landed at Porto Venere and, as snow had closed the Alpine passes, wintered at Vercelli; on 20 July 802 he delivered the elephant and the other gifts at Aachen. The annals record the animal’s name, Abul Abaz — Abu al-Abbas, the name by which the first Abbasid caliph was known.

Einhard adds that Charlemagne had asked for the elephant and that it was the only one the caliph then had — a claim modern historians regard as an invention. The animal was long remembered: around 825 the Irish scholar Dicuil, refuting the ancient belief that elephants never lie down, recalled that the people of the Frankish kingdom had seen the elephant of Emperor Charles lie down like an ox. Abul-Abbas died suddenly in 810 at Lippeham, where Charlemagne had crossed the Rhine and was waiting for his troops before marching against the Danish king Godfred. Whether it was an Asian or an African elephant is disputed.

The exchanges continued: in 807 another envoy of Harun, arriving together with monks sent by the patriarch of Jerusalem, brought a great tent, silks, perfumes and a brass water clock with twelve mechanical horsemen. No trace of these embassies has been found in Abbasid records, and how much weight the caliph gave them is unknown.

Connections

Related events

Reign of Harun al-Rashidbetween 14 September and 17 September 786 – 24 March 809 · Middle East and EgyptThe elephant was Harun al-Rashid’s gift, brought back by the envoy Isaac; the exchange is known almost only from Frankish sources

Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central EuropeThe caliph’s gifts reached Charlemagne a year and a half after his imperial coronation; the embassy itself had left in 797

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Harun al-Rashid’s elephant Abul-Abbas reaches Aachen

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Sources